Get Your Kids Taken Away Over A Traffic Ticket?
Much of life now seems to be considered child endangerment. Via Lew Rockwell, a Detroit dad is threatened with the loss of his twins over a traffic ticket he got while riding a bike with them in tow. From MSNBC.com:
In early September, Sean Harrington was pulling his twin boys on a trailer attached to his bike for a day of fun in downtown Detroit along the river walk.He was returning home and riding down the sidewalk on Park Street when he pulled onto the street to avoid hitting baseball fans who were blocking his path.
He admits he was going the wrong way down a one way street, but he was about fifty feet from his home.
"It's a bicycle and it was four car-lengths that I was on the wrong way street," said Harrington.
Police still stopped him and issued him a ticket.
...Several days later, he received a letter in the mail, asking him to appear in court in November, facing the possibility of being charged with child endangerment.
Via Lenore Skenazy, here's an entirely different sort of thinking on "child endangerment" -- from a blind broadcaster for the BBC, Peter White, whose piece is headlined "Taking risks was part and parcel of my childhood, and I'm grateful for it -- Let's understand the difference between sensible precaution and a fear of living our lives adventurously":
My mum in particular realised that we needed our freedom, and the chance to play with the other kids in the street. She fully understood there were risks. I once had to be accompanied back to school with a letter that explained that Peter's many cuts and bruises were the result of his learning to ride a bike. I had spent most of that holiday sprawled in the neighbour's flowerbed, with the bike in the hedge.I didn't understand it then, but I know now it took great courage for her to do what she did. The interesting thing is that the special blind boarding schools to which we were sent were equally uninhibited. At my secondary school in Worcester we were positively encouraged - no, actually forced - to go out alone, or accompanied only by another blind friend. The 4 o'clock walk was compulsory: nobody asked where you were going, or whether you had the skills to get there. And when things went wrong, the school faced them with almost unbelievable sang-froid. When I was 12, I had a road accident. My parents were informed of this in a terse letter: "Peter has had a slight brush with a lorry. No serious harm done."
After this incident, a few half-hearted rules were introduced about who should be allowed to wander about unsupervised, but they were quickly abandoned. Nothing interfered with the custom of Founder's Day, where every pupil was given five shillings, and sent out for the day - a kind of ultimate 4 o'clock walk. I once managed to hitchhike the 200 or so miles home to Winchester and back. Returning to school just after midnight, I received a mild reprimand, and congratulations for having had the initiative to enlist the help of the police in getting my last, after-dark lift.
...My first bosses at the BBC got the idea quite quickly that I was happy to wander off on my own with my portable tape recorder, and come back with the goods. Even on my first trips abroad, always alone, I don't remember anyone asking whether I'd be safe, or what I intended to do.
No, it probably isn't so safe to ride the wrong way down the street with your kids, but should every bit of risk-taking be prosecuted? Couldn't the cops just have given this guy a warning?
The problem here is we don't have enough information. We don't know how much traffic there was on that one way street, for starters. Should he appear on child endangerment charges? We just don't have enough information to know for certain.
Steve at October 6, 2011 4:01 AM
He must have felt it was safe enough, given the situation. Seeing as how he was all but home, he would probably know the street well enough to make that judgement.
So instead of looking at the whole situation, how he appears to have been courteous enough to not try and run over pedestrians, the police are bored enough to write this guy a ticket? Fortunately, there is pretty much no actual crime in Detroit to occupy these guys.
DrCos at October 6, 2011 4:30 AM
As written, this seems ridiculous. I've seen parents with both bike and jogging strollers that were clearly endangering their kids lives though. So I think the cop was right to at least speak with him. God knows hte cop would get slammed if they'd gotten hit by a car and he's done nothing.
momof4 at October 6, 2011 6:17 AM
If he had been hit and the cop did nothing, then nothing would be said.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_v._District_of_Columbia
Although as my recent experiences indicate, we no longer own ourselves, we are all property of the state. Which is how they justify passing all kinds of laws to "protect" us.
brian at October 6, 2011 6:31 AM
You no longer have the rights guaranteed to you by the 5th and 6th Amendments to the Constitution.
The courts and the legislature have made a mockery of them. Everybody knows child protective services, asset forfeitures, no-knock drug raids, and Kelo only affect bad people. Meanwhile, the morons protest Wall Street.
It was a nice country, once.
MarkD at October 6, 2011 10:03 AM
The part that disturbs me the most is that he was riding his bike down the sidewalk before he got the ticket. In many places, riding bikes on the sidewalk is illegal - and it's always unsafe for pedestrians, which is who the sidewalks are built for. So I think this guy deserved a ticket either which way - but the child endangerment charge is a different story.
Love the stories about Peter White, though - we're getting way over-protective of our kids these days, and it doesn't produce good results.
Melissa W at October 6, 2011 10:25 AM
We need more information.
If he did lose his children because of this, it would definitely be wrong, wrong, wrong.
However--if I saw a man riding his bike the wrong direction down a one-way street, (apparently not in a bike lane) with his two little kids in a trailer behind him, I would wonder why the cops were never around when I wanted them to be.
Pricklypear at October 6, 2011 10:40 AM
I agree and disagree. Maybe it's because I'm from a city with an above-average of one-way streets, but I am enraged with cyclists going the wrong way down a one-way street. They present a danger to themselves and all the traffic around them.
On the other hand, threatening to take away a guy's kids because he's stupid? If intelligence was a state-required prerequisite to parenting, the species would have died out long ago. Give 'im a warning, and hope he's smart enough to pass the lesson along to his kids: "See what daddy did? He got in serious trouble because he didn't obey the law. DON'T DO THAT."
Tim Webster at October 6, 2011 11:20 AM
Yes, to the above comments. As a bicyclist, I get really irritated at other cyclists who ride on sidewalks, ride across pedestrian crossings, and go the wrong way on streets and bicycle lanes. These few idiots give the rest of us a bad name.
However, child endangerment? In too many places, CPS has apparently become a monstrosity...
a_random_guy at October 6, 2011 11:48 AM
Amy Alkon
https://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2011/10/get-your-kids-t.html#comment-2540037">comment from Tim WebsterWrong-way cyclists piss me off, but let's go after the people whose kids are raised in meth dens, 'kay?
Amy Alkon
at October 6, 2011 12:19 PM
Fwiw, this guy owns three businesses, a bar, the Town Pump Tavern, a restaurant, the Centaur, and a loft, the Iodent on that corner. So he's probably familiar with how dangerous it is.
I don't know the legality of riding on a sidewalk when the street is one way.
If it's illegal, it shouldn't be. Cyclists pay for streets too. His alternative would be a big detour as opposed to riding up a short city block that Google Maps tells me is 245 feet total.
http://g.co/maps/2x323
Amy, the second story is inspirational -- I find it uplifting after yesterday's sad news. Sadly, I suspect his old schools long ago did away with such adventures.
jerry at October 6, 2011 12:23 PM
"the Town Pump Tavern"
I don't know if I should head directly to the Town Pump Tavern, or be afraid, be very afraid of the Detroit Town Pump.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=town%20pump
But it is a great name for a bar.
jerry at October 6, 2011 12:25 PM
Amy Alkon
https://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2011/10/get-your-kids-t.html#comment-2540051">comment from jerrySuspect you're right, Jerry.
Amy Alkon
at October 6, 2011 12:26 PM
Sweet, so if I decide to drive the wrong way down the one-way street in my neighborhood, that's cool, right? Because it's really only 300 feet long and it's right around the corner from my house, so that makes it okay if I use this guy's (entitled) logic.
I don't know if child endangerment charges are warranted, since I wasn't there, and I'd be inclined to think that a ticket is sufficient and the endangerment charges are overkill, but this guy's attitude is pretty disgusting. Being on the sidewalk in the first place isn't appropriate. A bicycle is a vehicle; it belongs on the street, obeying the rest of the traffic laws.
Choika at October 11, 2011 5:47 AM
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